Dr. Acharya Shree Yogeesh is a spiritualist and practitioner of Eastern philosophy with a Doctorate of Philosophy in “The Six Substances of Jainism: A Comparative Study with Buddhist Texts.” Acharya Shree is also founder of Yogeesh Ashram, a California-based non-profit whose sole purpose is “to uplift and awaken souls.”

Violent videogames, in the doctor's opinion, contribute little or nothing to that mandate.

In a YouTube video from earlier this year, Acharya Shree talks about the karmic effects of videogames on users, stating that the impact on users is “very bad” because “their intention is not pure.” He added, “Even though they are just characters or cartoons, …killing is immoral. Violence is the worst thing in the world to collect the bad karma.”

Acharya Shree continued, “Where there is killing in world, even when it is mental, it brings a lot of bad karma and person can be suffering even in this life, you never know, because the karmic effect can happen in this life. It is not that this person has to wait for the next life to have the bad result.”

He suggest a ban on violent games:

So I suggest that those kinds of games, which teach children a lot of violence, it is not good for the family, good for the society, good for the nation. We need to put ban on those kinds of characters, those kind of games…

It is not a good future for the nation at all. The children will go violent and will create trouble in the society when they grow up because they get habit to kill. …They might kill each other!

Acharya Shree on what kinds of games parents should be encouraging their kids to play:

Teach your children not that kind of games, teach something mathematical, where their brains get sharp, or historical games, where there is knowledge in world, where there is maybe philosophy in world, where there is psychology in world, where their brain can get sharper more and they become more intelligent... they become more peaceful, they become more calm and they will not disturb the family, they will not disturb the society and they will not disturb the nation.

I suggest our government needs to take the step toward this because these games, they are making our society very violent and it is just time to stop those companies who are making that kind of games.

We are all responsible for that violence because we are not protesting.

I am a religious guy, and this makes me very qualified to tell you how to live your life. So listen to me and stop allowing those lemmings to die, or you shall never reach Nirvana. No, not the band, the spiritual enlightenment.

You cannot acheive karmatic balance or embalance through video games. Karma doesn't exist in the digital realm or make believe.

There is a downside to video games and karma, I will admit, but not what this guy is stating. Instead of learning to cope with violent tendencies and elminating them from your thought process and actions altogether, games offer an outlet to 'take the edge off' as it were. It should be viewed as a neutral karmatic action (which would technically be the best kind since good karmatic actions enivitably cause bad karmatic actions elsewhere in order for balance to be maintained) but it doesn't contribute toward someone trying to harvest up some good karma.

Of course, that is if you are a Buddhist (and that is only some branches of Buddhism, I believe)

Not to get something started, but most of the churches I have been to in the south just had a box in the back that people could contribute to. A lot of folks in low income areas, which is the bulk of the south (no offense, as I was raised there and am just talking from experience), aren't too comfortable with a plate being passed around. It is demoralizing to see your neighbor put something up for the church when you don't have anything to give. The collection plate is still kicked around in plenty of churches and some made a bigger deal out of it than they should have, but those were in a minority compared to the others. Of course, this is just personal experience talking, it could be the polar opposite for others.

My personal feeling on the matter is the person who runs the church (pastor, preacher, etc.) should have another job to support the building and upkeep himself and just have collections solely for giving aid to needy folks. That is an extreme rarity though.

Oh, sweet. I have repeatedly saved the world from terrorists, aliens, ninjas, dragon monsters and zombies. I even battled Tyranosatan, the Dinosaur Devil, once. That's much worse than the regular Devil. I must have awesome karma by now.

Shout box

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm

Mattsworkname: Its an interesting concept, but it's not gonna appeal to everyone thats for sure,08/01/2015 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: That sounds horrifically boring. Doesn't sound like an interesting use of its time dilation premise either. 08/01/2015 - 5:36pm

Mattsworkname: an observer , seeing this sorta frozen world and being able to explore without any restriction other then time. no enimes, no threats, just the chance to explore08/01/2015 - 5:34pm